Free speech - Out of luck?

A challenge to US legislation restoring to copyright protection foreign works previously in the public domain, was rejected by the Appeal Court of the District of Columbia in Luck's Music Library v Gonzalez yesterday, 24 May 2005.

One of the interesting arguments for us was whether the legislation was in breach of First Amendment rights to free speech and whether, as it changed the contours of copyright protection, the First Amendment could be relevant (the general position being that copyright is at least supposed to protect First Amendment interests already).

Unfortunately, after meeting a resounding "no" in the District Court last year (the legislation didn't encroach on traditional copyright protection, so no need to look at First Amendment), the question isn't considered on appeal. BUT an appeal is planned on a similar issue in Golan v Gonzalez, so who knows...

So what is civil society - Scotland awaits

One area we are looking at is how to ensure that any theoretical solution is likely to work, and be respected, in practice. Corporate social responsiblity seems relevant to this - at its highest, can it be a useful tool to encourage or require IP owning corporations to take a broader, less commercial, approach to enjoyment of their property rights?

Although no one can agree on whether CSR is worth anything or not, the consensus does appear to be that "civil society" is acquiring growing influence over corporate conduct. But what is civil society?

The forthcoming G8 at Gleneagles has brought to Scotland the full gamut of activity commonly grouped under the civil society umbrella: from that of constructive, peaceful single issue activists to more strident, and potentially, as has been seen in the past, violent, fundamental challengers to globalisation and corporate power. Its certainly made me much more aware that civil society does not speak with a single voice. Response to "civil society" per se should not, I think, therefore be used lightly, as justification for requiring changes in law and practice. Broad analysis and rigorous testing should be carried out, even in response to the most intuitively attractive causes.

Enlightenment - Better Later than Never

I've (belatedly) got round to reading the book "The Scottish Enlightenment" by Arthur Herman. As well as making me feel rather patriotic, it's a reminder, in a very readable form, of the fact that business, profit and moral and social values have not always, or not inevitably, been thought to be inconsistent. What would Hutcheson, Smith and Hume think of the accessing medicines debate?

World Telecommunications Day

Yesterday, 17 May 2005 was World Telecommunications Day. The message from the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union called for action in the telecoms field towards "Creating an equitable information society".

The ITU is also working towards the second World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis later this year (see links on this page.) The WSIS aims to improve access to the information society, ICT and reduce the digital divide, seeing this as fundamental to delivery of wider equality, education and development. Human rights - to education, information and free expression - are stated to be key to the project, as are IP, dynamic transfer of technology and economic growth.

So, I'll be watching the WSIS, and the impact of yesterday (admittedly so far looks pretty limited) as a real life practical example of what could happen when IP, competition and human rights are used together. Or, in the real world, when decisions have to be made, will IP owners and politics prevail?

What we are

The AHRC Research Centre at Edinburgh Uni is working on, amongst other projects, an exploration of the links between IP, competition and human rights, and the extent to which this can be used to address perceived (and likely justifiable) concerns arising from the power of IP rights - at least in the hands of multinational corporations.

Our aim is to develop a solution/strategy which is theoretically valid but which is also likely to work in the real world of international commerce, innovation and creativity.

We held a very successful experts meeting in December 2004. The papers from this will be published shortly in the online journal SCRIPT-ed. Further meetings and conferences are planned for 2005 and 2006.

But most of all what we want to do is draw together work, thoughts and concerns from differing fields, all related to the power and impact of IP, and see how these can be combined in our project. So ALL comments and suggestions very much welcomed.

Charlotte Waelde and Abbe Brown

First Post

Welcome to the AHRC Edinburgh blog considering the interface between intellectual property, competition and human rights.

Abbe Brown